Saturday, March 07, 2009

Mashed Potatoes at Bradbury Mountain

I knew today might be a bear of a run with the warm temperatures loosening up the snow, but actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. However, a few sections were still akin to running in mashed potatoes. But with weather as perfect as it was today, I don't think any of us really minded much.

I met up with Stephen at 7am. The rest of the group would arrive an hour later, so together we headed out on the Boundary Trail to the summit. This section of trail did indeed suck! No snowmobiles on the path we were running, so the snow was very loose and slow going. As Stephen put it, you didn't get any rebound action, all energy was absorbed in the soft snow.

We got done and Stephen wanted to go for another loop before the others arrived. I said no way. Instead, I opted to just run the short way back up to the summit and back down while he repeated the loop. Soon afterwards, the others, which included Ian, Mindy, Blaine, Lilly, Jim, Shauna and Ben, arrived and we were off.

The sections that ensued were in much better shape. They were all snowmobile trails, and while the snow was still a bit loose, it was way better than I thought it might be. Together we bopped along, only really stringing out on the return back to the parking lot. Fun trails, with rolling hills that are very steep at times.